Is there any case where your interpretation makes sense? Would you ever say 0.86 times fewer instead of 0.86 of the size?
If new is 1/7 the size of the old, then 7 * new = old. It takes 7 times of new_count to get the value of old_count. 1/7th of the old_count. 7x fewer seems like a shorthand, but I'm not a native English speaker.
x times != x times fewer
7 times fewer => multiply by fraction